Surface Laptop 2 review: Microsoft’s sleeker answer to the MacBook Air

Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 review — The Surface Laptop 2 adds quad-core Intel power, a sleek new black paint job but is stuck with old ports. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The Surface Laptop 2 is Microsoft’s ultimate vision of what a Windows 10 laptop should be – simple, sleek and sophisticated, but still a little different.

The look, feel and operation hasn’t changed since last year, save for a slick new black paint job, which joins the default Microsoft silver, burgundy and blue.

The top shell is smooth aluminium with rounded corners and the polished Microsoft logo inlaid in the centre. It’s a very simple look that is surprisingly different to most other laptops.

Open it up and you realise the keyboard deck is too. Covered in colour-matched Alcantara, the deck has a soft-touch fabric texture, feeling much warmer and inviting than metal or plastic, contrasting with the smooth aluminium lid. It’s good look that’s different to pretty much anything else on the market.

A large precision trackpad sits in the middle of the palm rests, below Microsoft’s brilliant keyboard. It’s well spaced, has excellent key feel and a good amount of travel. Both the keyboard and the trackpad are not exactly silent, but the typing experience is far quieter than some competitor machines.

The 13.5in high resolution touchscreen is just as beautiful as last year’s, and with the super quick startup and Windows Hello face recognition it makes it a joy to open. It’s definitely one of those machines that begs for a really good desktop background.

The bezels around the screen, although not massive, are larger than the competition this year, particularly Huawei’s MateBook X Pro and Dell’s XPS 13.

At 14.5mm thick it’s marginally slimmer than the competition with the Huawei MateBook X Pro 14.6mm thick and Apple’s MacBook Pro 14.9mm thick. It’s also slightly lighter at 1.25kg to 1.33 and 1.37kg respectively.

In a bag it’s a bit more noticeable than the Surface Pro 6, but still light enough to carry around without too many complaints.

Specifications

Screen: 13.5in LCD 2256 x 1504 (201 PPI)
Processor: Intel Core i5 or i7 (8th generation)
RAM: 8 or 16GB
Storage: 128, 256, 512GB or 1TB
Graphics: Intel UHD 620
Operating system: Windows 10 Home
Camera: 720P front-facing, Windows Hello
Connectivity: Wifi ac, Bluetooth 4.1, USB 3.0, mini DisplayPort, headphones, TPM
Dimensions: 308.1 x 223.3 x 14.5mm
Weight: 1,252 or 1,283g

Quad-core power with 10-hour battery life

The Surface Laptop 2 has been updated with Intel’s latest eighth-generation Core i5 and i7 processors, which are significantly more powerful thanks to being quad-core rather than dual-core and more power efficient.

As such even the black Core i5 version with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage performed very well indeed. Supporting two external 1080p displays connected to the optional Surface Dock, and the internal laptop screen without breaking a sweat.

From large image manipulation jobs in Affinity Photo to running 30 tabs in Chrome and any office or media duty you could think of the Surface Laptop 2 flew though it all. The laptop does have a fan for cooling, but it’s so quiet you could be forgiven for thinking it was entirely fanless.

The only duties the Surface Laptop 2 might struggle with are graphics related, as its integrated Intel UHD 620 chip is definitely the weak point – hardcore gaming and multiple 4K video editing are probably out.

Battery life was excellent, consistently lasting around 10 hours of working, enough to get through a full work day, watch a movie on the way home and still have some left in the tank.

That was while using Chrome with about 10 tabs open most of the day, using Nextgen Reader, Mail, Evernote, Typora, Affinity Photo and Netflix, with recommended brightness and battery setting (Better Battery).

Old ports

The first generation of Surface Laptop shipped last year with relatively old connectivity options. Sadly the Surface Laptop 2 ships with the same outdated ports.

It has a USB-A port, which is certainly welcome, a headphone socket, and the Surface Connector, which is a magnetic power cable that can double as a docking port with the sold-separately Surface Dock.

But the Surface Laptop 2 lacks any USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 ports, having only a mini DisplayPort for connecting monitors. It is a bizarre choice that doesn’t make sense in 2018. Practically nothing ships with a mini DisplayPort cable, so you’ll need to either buy a dongle or a new cable like you would with a USB-C port, but you also can’t use it for anything other than connecting a monitor, so it lacks the added universal utility USB-C offers.

Windows 10 Home

Last year’s model shipped with Windows 10 S, which could be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro at no cost. For the Surface Laptop 2 Microsoft has ditched S Mode entirely, instead shipping it with regular Windows 10 Home out of the box.

On paper that may seem like a downgrade, as to run Windows 10 Pro on it costs £120 from the Microsoft Store. But Windows 10 Home only really lacks enterprise networking, domain joining and BitLocker. It still has device encryption to protect your data if the laptop gets stolen, so most users won’t even notice the difference.

As with all Microsoft machines, all updates, including firmware and driver updates, are delivered straight through Windows Update, meaning there are no other utilities, support programs or bloat to deal with.

Observations

The Fn key can lock to either media or F keys with a little LED to show when active
Due to the angle of the side of the machine it can be difficult to plug the magnetic power cable in without lifting the side up for more leverage
The speakers are hidden beneath the deck of the keys and sound pretty good for a laptop

Price

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 comes in a variety of configurations and colours starting at £979 with a Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage or £1,249 with 256GB of storage.

The Core i7 version starts at £1,529 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, £2,079 with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage and tops out at £2,529 with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.

The laptop is available in platinum in all configurations or black, burgundy or cobalt blue in the Core i5 or i7 configurations with 256GB of storage.

These regularly updated deals have been sourced through a third-party price comparison service. The Guardian may make a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. More information.

For comparison, Dell’s XPS 13 starts at £1,219, Huawei’s MateBook X Pro at £1,300, Apple’s MacBook Air at £949 and MacBook Pro at £1,249

Verdict

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 is arguably the finest example of what a Windows laptop should be. It is beautiful, simple, powerful and well made. It works better than most of the competition, from super quick startup to seamless all-in-one update management. And in black it induces envy in those around you.

In many ways the Surface Laptop 2 is the spiritual successor to Apple’s MacBook Air – the relatively affordable, yet premium-made machine most people should buy that just works well for what most people want to do.

Sadly it is hampered by old ports. A couple of years ago USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 were the future, but now they’re just the present. Anything that doesn’t have at least one USB-C port is unnecessarily behind the times.

Still, at around £1,000 the Surface Laptop 2 is still a brilliant machine with a first-class experience, if you can get over the lack of modern ports.

Pros: great keyboard, good trackpad, Alcantara, sleek design, USB-A port, great screen, great battery life, Windows Hello, powerful processor

Cons: no USB-C, no SD card reader, no fingerprint scanner, limited configuration options, Windows 10 Home not Pro, only Intel UHD 620

Richard Hartley

Technology, Photography & Film